The Ada and Testing Environment Adaptations

¶ … Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was first signed into law in 1990, and several amendments to it have been made including the most recent changes made in 2009. Generally, the ADA requires that "reasonable accommodations" are made to infrastructure and environment, including those related to a test-taking environment (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2008).

Accommodations are made according to the specific needs of the situation, with the goal being the provision of an "an opportunity for a person with a disability to achieve the same level of performance and to enjoy benefits equal to those of an average, similarly situated person without a disability," (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2008).

An employer or educational institution, for example, would need to ensure that desks can be adapted to suit test-takers with physical disabilities, that the test-taking venue is accessible to persons needing assistance in a wheelchair or other device, or in other cases, the test material be translated into sign language or braille. The text of the ADA regulations emphasizes the legal "obligation" testing entities have in providing equal opportunity compete with others in the "high stakes" testing environment (United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, n.d.).

High school equivalency examinations like the GED, college entrance examinations like the SAT, and graduate school admissions tests like the GMAT are all examples of "high stakes" tests that make a clear difference in the lives of those taking them. Professional licensure tests are also falling under the ADA rubric for high stakes tests. In addition to providing for adaptations to the physical environment or material language of the tests, other accommodations may include extended time for taking the tests if extra time is warranted.

Because of these provisions and the ways they have been interpreted and implemented, persons without disabilities have begun to feel threatened and claim the adaptations provide unnecessary privileges or entitlements to persons with disabilities. The fears that privilege or entitlement is being given to persons with disabilities is unfounded. For one, the ADA does not require that the tests ensure equal results; only that the test-taking instruments and environment are equally as accessible to all test takers.

Second, persons with disabilities have contended with unequal access to a range of materials throughout their lives up until the point of the test and it would be hard to imagine their being "entitled" or "privileged" in any way. Quite the contrary, persons without disabilities are privileged and it is precisely a sense of entitlement that is causing them to perceive adaptations as being unfair. Persons with any disability have invariably experienced hindered progress or frustrations due to lack of accessibility at some point.

Third, test takers can "demonstrate their true aptitude" only when they compete on as level a playing field as possible with their peers (United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, n.d.). A level playing field can only be achieved with small shifts to the testing environment. Finally, the shifts to the testing environment or materials of the examination are made on an individualized basis. The ADA does not specify what exactly must be done or how.

Instead, the organization administering the test receives formal requests for accommodations and is required under the auspices of the ADA to heed those requests. For example, the American Board.